Striking Seeds

So I was thinking, in this extreme heat it can be difficult to strike seeds. Most of the time I have got little shade houses that I made from shade cloth and a bit of wire – they are good but in the hot months I have most of them in use for lettuce etc that need the protection all the time.

So my challenge has been how to get longer rows of seeds to strike... I heard some old timer saying once that the trick for carrots was plant them cover them with wet hessian for two weeks then take it off and they’ll be up, thinking of the theory behind it ummm yeah plausible because you just need small seeds to stay kind of moist.

I found some scrap shade cloth I had in the shed; cut along the long edge then I planted a row of some basil and rocket seeds; laid the shade cloth on the ground (with couple of stick to stop it blowing away) watered them daily– now they’re up, now I’ll wait for them to get up a bit then some rainy or coolish days to take the shade off – job done.

So, it works, that’s proof because I couldn’t strike them 1 week ago... I reckon the challenge now will be transition to no shade watch this space. NOW go plant some seeds!